FanPost

Donovin Darius update

Hmmmm....

Got the VText, thanks Verizon, and located the story on BB.com indicating the visit of Dononvin Darius today.

This pretty much came out of nowhere to me.  Yeah, we supposedly had interest in him a few weeks ago when he was released, but we hadn't heard of anything since.  Him coming in today is a sign of how serious we are about potentially signing him.  Whether Darius is serious about signing here is a whole other story, but I did find this interesting:

No doubt one of the attractive qualities of the Bills for Darius is there are some familiar faces on the Buffalo coaching staff. His rookie season Darius worked under then Jacksonville defensive coordinator Dick Jauron. Bills defensive coordinator Perry Fewell was also Darius' position coach the first five seasons of his career in Jacksonville.

I knew Jauron had been on Jacksonsville's staff at one point, but I never connected him and Darius and I also didn't know Fewell had coached Darius directly for 5 seasons.  To me, this could mean two things.  One, both sides are VERY serious about coming to terms and two, the Bills are serious while Darius is throwing his old coaches a bone.  Personally, I think it's strong mutual interest and I would not be surprised if Darius eventually signed here based on his connections with our staff and our need for a veteran safety presence but don't think it'll happen.

I know many of you are stunned that we would want to bring in a guy who has been a starter since day 1 in his career at a position we are supposedly set at.  Well, as I've mentioned before, I don't think we are set.  While I'm not sold on Whitner being our long term FS, I do feel he is capable of making the move if Darius is signed.  I am not confident in Ko Simpson like so many other Bills fans and would not be opposed to strengthening our secondary this way.  However, I'm not sure it's the wisest move bringing in Darius to start and shifting Whitner to FS.  He has spent his entire time in Buffalo as our SS, but we would want to switch him for a 2-3 year stopgap potentially?  I'm not sure about that.  Of course, if Darius could play FS or Whitner is more comfortable at FS, then I don't think there'd be much of a problem.  And this would also not be an issue if Darius was brought in strictly as our #3 safety, which I highly doubt anyways.

Overall, I think Darius could have a strong presence in our secondary, even if for 2-3 years.  He is a player of high character, is driven to succeed and would bring a strong sense of leadership to a defense, and secondary especially, in need of some.  Again, I'm not sure it'd be the smartest move to bring him in as a starter because I think he's a SS and a SS only, which would mean Whitner would have to switch over to FS.  Of course, that may not be as problematic as I think. I still don't think it's going to happen, but ya never know.  

And if Darius is signed, what does that say about Ko Simpson?  

Just another great fan opinion shared on the pages of BuffaloRumblings.com.